Home Buyers Identify Home Affordability As New Number One Consideration When Buying A Home

It makes no difference if you are a man or a woman, married or unmarried or in which part of the country you live - a recent poll reveals there is now a new top requirement for Americans when searching for a new home: affordability. A wave of practicality driven by harsh economic times has forced location - the number one home-buying factor in research conducted in the past - to take a back seat in the process, and has created nationwide consensus when it comes to this emotionally-charged activity. These and other new consumer findings regarding home buying were announced today by the real estate search engine Roost.com in conjunction with the roll out of a major update to the company's website.

In an Opinion Research poll that surveyed 1,002 U.S. adults by telephone May 8-11, 2009, 43 percent of respondents across the board - male/female, married/not married, and from every corner of the country - said that finding a home they can afford and maintain was the most important consideration when researching a new home, and was cited significantly more often than the number two consideration, finding a home in the right location or community. This can be compared to a survey conducted by Kelton Research in 2005, prior to the recent economic downturn, in which a full three out of four Americans (72 percent) stated that when looking at available property, the neighborhood was more important than the house itself.

"These are challenging if not sobering times for home owners as well as buyers and I think this research indicates that people have become more realistic and responsible about their preferences and plans with regard to the real estate market," said Alex Chang, CEO of Roost. "We're in the business of helping people find their perfect home online by providing comprehensive and accurate search results. By doing this, our users can more easily find their dream home, which these days, means a home they can most afford."

The Opinion Research survey also revealed that on average, home buyers spend a significant amount of time researching potential homes to buy online - a full eleven and-a-half hours per week, a number that is even higher for women. Home buyers in the Northeast spend the most time researching prospective homes at 15.2 hours per week.

The New Roost Coinciding with the announcement of its survey findings, Roost is also launching significant updates to the website's functionality and look and feel, ending the "beta" phase of Roost's development. Roost.com's free search engine for homes for sale and MLS listings, the most comprehensive and accurate on the Web, now offers consumers an unparalleled integrated mapping functionality and coverage in 10 new markets: Greensboro, NC; Raleigh, NC; Tucson, AZ; Palm Beach, FL; Naples, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Richmond, VA; Greater Los Angeles, CA; Louisville, KY; Lexington, KY. These enhancements to the site ultimately make finding an affordable home easier, faster and more enjoyable.

About Roost Founded in San Francisco in 2007, Roost is the premier real estate search engine. To support its mission of making it simple for home buyers to find the house of their dreams, Roost is dedicated to providing the most comprehensive, accurate real estate resource on the Web. By partnering with local Multiple Listing Services (MLS), real estate brokers, builders, and via a strategic relationship with iHomefinder, Inc (an industry leader in real estate data services and MLS compliance), Roost helps ensure home buyers access to current homes for sale and foreclosure information in more than 40 major metro areas across the US. For example, some of the top homes for sale and foreclosure searches at Roost include Boston Homes for Sale (http://www.roost.com/real-estate/MA/Boston/), Denver Homes for Sale (http://www.roost.com/real-estate/CO/Denver/), Orlando Foreclosures (http://foreclosures.roost.com/real-estate/FL/Orlando/), Philadelphia Homes for Sale (http://www.roost.com/real-estate/PA/Philadelphia/), Phoenix Foreclosures (http://foreclosures.roost.com/real-estate/AZ/Phoenix/), San Francisco Homes for Sale (http://www.roost.com/real-estate/CA/San-Francisco/) and Washington D.C. Foreclosures.

For more information visit http://www.roost.com.

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Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/06/prweb2493274.htm.

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